[SOLVED] Video card driver help

[kelcatrell]

I am new to Linux. I am running an Ubuntu distro, and have an Nvidia video card. I cannot seem to get it to activate. When i go to System>Hardware drivers, it gives two options, one of which is recommended. Neither of them work though. I click them, and then it says it is installing the driver at 0%, and then that dialog box disappears.
I was wondering if anyone would be able to help with this problem. Thanks a ton!

[Rubberman]

I am new to Linux. I am running an Ubuntu distro, and have an Nvidia video card. I cannot seem to get it to activate. When i go to System>Hardware drivers, it gives two options, one of which is recommended. Neither of them work though. I click them, and then it says it is installing the driver at 0%, and then that dialog box disappears.
I was wondering if anyone would be able to help with this problem. Thanks a ton!

You need to go to the nvidia web site and download and install their drivers. The one's you find in the package manager is probably not going to work well for you. At least the ones directly from nVidia work very well. I have an 8800GT card on my CentOS system with dual displays and it is very nice!

Notes:
1. You need to install the driver as root. Read the installation instructions on the nVidia web site carefully.
2. You have to run in text-mode to install the driver, so you will need to change your system to run-level 3 first, and then reboot. The instructions for that follows.

1. Open a terminal window to get a command-line.
2. Edit the file /etc/inittab: sudo vi /etc/inittab
3. Change the line that reads: id:5:initdefault:
to read: id:3:initdefault:
4. Save the file.
5. Reboot computer

When the computer reboots, it will not go into GUI mode. Login as normal, then do this:
sudo su -

That will put you into the superuser (root) account. Now you are ready to install your new driver.

1. cd to the directory where you downloaded the file. It should be named something like this:
NVIDIA-Linux-i386-180.22-pkg2.run
The actual name will depend upon the version and platform (32-bit or 64-bit) you are installing on.
2. Make the file executable with the command: chmod +x filename
where filename is the name of the installation file, including the .run extension.
3. Run the installation script: ./filename
and pretty much say yes to all the questions. The script uses the text-based curses UI, but it is
likely that your mouse won't work. Use the TAB and ENTER keys to navigate as necessary. It is
pretty self-explanatory. At the end of the process, it will ask if you want it to auto-configure your
xorg.conf file. Say yes to that. It will make a backup copy of your current xorg.conf file in case you
need to restore the old settings.

Finally, edit /etc/inittab again and change the runlevel back to 5, save the file, and reboot. With any
luck, you are done!

Good luck, and let us know how it worked out for you.

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

Just install envyng package using apt-get. Execute envyng command. It will install correct Nvidia Driver.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install envyng
sudo envyng

[Rubberman]

Hi and Welcome !

Just install envyng package using apt-get. Execute envyng command. It will install correct Nvidia Driver.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install envyng
sudo envyng

Yes. That is better for the Ubuntu crowd. I am primarily a CentOS/RHEL user, so we have to do it the hard way! I'll have to remember that for my laptop when I install Ubuntu natively on it - I'm waiting for delivery of another system drive before I do - I prefer to keep my Linux and Windoze OS's single-boot. Did that with my last laptop - just pop out one disc and plug in the other - blip and you're done. Not much more difficult than dual-booting a single drive, IMO.

[kelcatrell]

it gives me the error E: Couldn't find package envyng for devils casper's technique
trying rubberman's now

[devils casper]

Which version of Ubuntu are using? Envyng is available in default sources of latest versions of Ubuntu.

[kelcatrell]

I got it working! I did a couple google searches to see which envyng package i needed. I'm running Jaunty, and can't remember right now which it was, but I found it and it worked like a charm. Thanks for all the help!

[devils casper]

Well Done and glad to help you !
Do start a new thread if you have any other question.